North Korea has notified South Korea that it will dispatch an advance team over the weekend to inspect details for its art troupe’s performance during the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said Friday. 

After Monday’s working-level talks, the two Koreas agreed that a 140-member art troupe, including an 80-strong orchestra, singers and dancers, are to perform in Seoul and Gangneung, Gangwon Province.

The North has asked that the seven-member delegation headed by Hyon Song-wol, leader of the Samjiyon Orchestra, travel to Seoul via the western land route Saturday, said the ministry. The route links Paju, Gyeonggi Province, and the inter-Korean Kaesong industrial park, which was shuttered in 2016 on suspicions it was funding the North’s nuclear weapons program.

The delegation will stay in South Korea for two days, added the ministry.

In a joint press statement released after Monday’s meeting, North Korea said it would send an inspection team to check practical matters such as the venue, stage conditions and equipment necessary for the upcoming performance, “as soon as possible.”

Although the advance team is likely to use the western route, the North initially asked South Korea to allow its art troupe to use a route through the truce village of Panmunjeom near the border.

Both sides reached a clear consensus on using the western land route for the North’s Olympic Committee, athletes, cheerleading squad, taekwondo demonstrators, and press corps’ visit here.

Following North Korean leader Kim Jong-un New Year’s address expressing willingness to send a delegation to the PyeongChang Olympics, the two Koreas quickly arranged a high-level meeting on Jan. 9 to discuss the North’s participation in the Winter Games.

If the art troupe’s performance is confirmed, it would mark the first of such events since 2002, when Pyongyang sent 30 singers and dancers from several music and performance groups to Seoul for a joint event.

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)